
K 



UliMlis: 




OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT 



POEMS AND nRAWINGS 



1/ 
MARY A. LATHBURY. 



" So is ever\-one that is born of the Spirit" — John 3 : 8. 




\o,. 1879. .<^JJ 



^Of WA^W*^^' 



BOSTON: 
D.LOTHROP AND COMPANY. 

FRAXKLIJI ST., CORNER OF IIAWLEY. 






?s 






COPYRIGHT, 

D. LOTHROP & CO., 

1878. 



C. A. HACK AND SON, PRINTERS, 
TAUNTON, MASS. 



s. ©. w. 



IN GRATITUDE. 



The titorld sits at the feet of Christ, 
Unknowing, blind, and unconsoled ; 
It yet shall touch His garment's fold, 
And feel the heavenly Alclicmist 
Transform its very dust to gold. 



The theme heftting angel tongues 
Beyond a mortal 's scope has grown. 
O heart of mine ! with reverence own 

The fullness lohich to it belongs, 
And trust the unknown for the known. 

J. G. WniTTrER. 




CONTENTS 



[The engravings are by Wm. J. Dana.] 



MV LIFE. 

Vignettes: "A storm-swept flower; " " Seed-germs." 
Full Page : " What is my life ? " 



II. 

DA WN. 

Vignettes : " The promise of the Sun ; " "I have no pleasure in then 
Full Page : " So wanes the world." 

III. 

WITH BOOKS. 

Vignettes : " Like a tired insect ; " " What canst thou know .' " 
Full Page : " With all the wise and great I walk." 



IV. 

AL TAR-B UILDING. 

Vignettes: "I stifle in an air made dense with sacrifice.' 
Full Page: " I read, and all my spirit faints." 



Contents. 

V. 

IN SHADOW. 

Vignettes: Sinai; Zion. 

Full Page: "I hear 

Dread voices from the holy Book." 

VI. 

WAITING. 

Vignettes -. " O helpless human heart ! " " Through cloud and chill." 
Full Page: "Doubt, like a shadowy shape of wrong, 
Pursues — appalls me." 

VII. 

DA YBREAK. 

Vignettes : " Celled in the prison-house ; " "Be free ! " 
Full Page: "Saved by Hope." 

VIII. 

SUNWARD. 

Vignettes : " Earth and shadows drift away ; " " Light on the cross." 
Full Page : " The end of the law." 





[* 







MY LIFE. 

" Behold, God is great, and we know Him not.' ' — Job. 36 : 26. 

What is my life ? I only trace 

My being backward, through its birth, 
To the low level of the earth — 

The birth and death bed of my race. 

I live — fast rooted in the clay; 

Yet I, in my allotted hour. 

Shall vanish like a storm-swept flower 

That lives its own fair, fleeting day. 

And yet, if I may feel — not know. 

This sentient seed beneath its clod, 
That lifts its infant face to God, 

Hath other air wherein to grow! 

What is my life ? I can but wait 

The springing of a deathless germ, 
Or the fixed fate of flower and worm ; 

God may be good as he is great ! 




fd- 1 




"It a man die, shall he live again ? "—Job 14: 14. 




DAWN. 



"The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." ■ — I. Cor. 15: 40. 

There is a dying in my days, 

As when the moon grows faint at morn, 
And stars die when the day is born ; 

So wanes the world o'er all my ways. 

Its hours of brightness are not bright ; 

Its golden lamps, a-bloom with flame, 
Its altars to the unknown Name, 

Burn with a false and fitful light. 

Though Pleasure sits a syren there, 

And lifts the voice that lulled me long 
To airy altitudes of song. 

It dies upon the heedless air. 

Lo — from the heavens, one by one. 

The stars are sinking ; and my life — 
Mute witness of the unequal strife — 

Thrills with the promise of the Sun. , 





"I have no pleasure in tliem."— Eccl. 12: i. 



WITH BOOKS, 



' But where shall wisdom be found?" — Job zS: 




I STRETCH my hands as blind men do, 
And grope for paths that lead 

to God ; 
But men less blind these ways 
have trod, 
And found but " figures of 
the true." 



the misty aisles of eld 
all the wise and good I walk, 
in their silent language talk, 
And question of the hopes they held; 



Of old philosophies, long dead, 

Whose shuttles, plying in the shade, 

A dark and tangled web have made. 

With no upleading golden thread ; 



Of preacher and apologist, 

Who change their cruel creeds at 
Till infinite TOod and endless ill 

Upbraid each other in the mist 



Like a tired insect, overborne 

With honied weights that are not food 
I turn to thee thou unseen Good, 
And wait, and wonder 
till the morn. 





■Andthouchl . . . understand all mysteries and all knowledse . . . I .1111 nothinj."— I. Cuk 



ALTAR-BUILDING, 



' For I desired mercy and not sacrifice." — Hosea 6 ; 6, 



From books, I turn mc to the Book : 
As pilgrims read the legend o'er 
Upon a temple's carven door, 

To this unveile'd Word I look. 



Forever — so the Fathers taught — 
Behind its quaintly-lettered gate 
Pure presences of spirit wait 

To lead the seeker to the Sought. 



I read — and all my spirit faints ! 

" Be holy — perfect — pure and true; 
Love God, and his commandments do, 

If thou wouldst stand aniona: his saints.' 



Thee only. Source of good, I seek, 

Yet naught of good, no holy thing. 
Have these unhallowed hands to bring, 
These lips no fitting word to speak 





Perhaps, if years of yearning lift 
My life above its earth, to be 
A soul that suns itself in thee. 

Thou wilt accept the humble gift. 



\\ Perhaps — yet. Lord, forgive the thought! 
I stifle in an air made dense 
With sacrifice that breathes offense 
\\ To Love, whose gifts are all unbought. 




' I have hoped in iliy word."— Ps i lo^ 74 '' But thy commandment is exceeding broad." — Ps. i lo: o'l- 



IN SHADOW. 



"And where is now my hope ?" — Job ly. 15. 

The clouds hang low above my life, 
And mingle in a murky gray 
That gives faint hope of that blue day 
Of sun and calm, the end of strife ; 

While in the closing gloom I hear 

Dread voices from the holy Book ; 
And from the years my sins do look 

With eyes that smite me through with 
fear. 

Into a land whose shadowing wings 

Are doom and death my soul is led, 
Bound like a prisoner to the dead — 
The heavens are filled with 
thunderings! 



O strength of God ! I faint for thee, 
For I my worthless girdle spun 
In Egypt, singing in the sun, 

And in my need it faileth me ! 

" Not to the mount that burns with fire," 
(So sings an angel in the dark. 
And all my soul springs up to mark 
His voice with infinite desire ) 

" But unto Zion are ye come — 
Fair city of the living God, 
By holy men and angels trod, 

And henceforth your eternal home ! " 






' Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." — James 2 : 10. 




WAITING. 

" Until the day dawn." — II. Peter i ; rg. 

I HEARD, far up some heavenly height, 

A prophet angel sing, and though 
No word in all his song I know, 

I know that somewhere all is light. 

Doubt, like a shadowy shape of wrong. 

Pursues — appalls me ; but I hold 
A little leading thread of gold ; 

Therefore, O doubting heart, be strong 

" Through sunless seas, through cloud and chill. 

The Lord from Egypt calls his son. 
And Love in darkness knows its own ; 

Therefore, O doubting heart, be still." 

O helpless human heart of mine ! 

Unweaned from thy mother earth, 
Wait thou in quietness the birth — 

The Had release of the Divine! 





" L'ali now, if tliere be any that will answer ihee, and lo which of ihe saints wilt tliou turn ?" — Job 5; 



DAYBREAK. 



"We are saved by Hope." — Rom. S : 24. 




Look up, thou waking seed of God, 
Celled in the prison-house of Hope ; 
Shall spirit, born of Spirit, grope 

In dust when Easter suns the sod ? 



■ The Lord, thy Life, hath entered in 

Through the rent veil of himian woe. 
Making complete atonement. Lo, 

What canst thou offer for thy sin ? 



No longer, then, a servant be 

To Law, for thou art under Grace : 
Enter with Christ the holy place 
Beyond the altar, and be free ! ' 



That voice (from mine own heart, the Book, 
Or heaven, I know not) through my night 
Dropped its divine " Let there be light ! " 
And, listening, earth and heaven shook 



As with removal. Cloud and clod 

Broke into glory — burst with life ; 
Peace touched the jarring chords of 
strife, 
And all the silence thrilled with 
God! 





\"t: art; nut uiiiit-T ilie law, but under grace." — Rom. 6; 14. 




SUNWARD. 

" He that hnth the Son, hath life."— 1. John 5: 12. 

Strong Elder-Brother — Son of God ! 

I kiss thy gUstening garment's fold, 
And follow where its hem of gold 

Transfiafures with its touch the sod. 

I marvel at the Love that laid 

Upon itself the nameless woe 

That broke thy human heart to know, 

Yet, knowing, left thee undismayed. 

But more I marvel that the Love 

\^^-lich yielded to the touch of death 
Still lives — of all that lives the breath — 

The Life of life below — above. 

O Life, how limitless thy day 1 

I float upon the blessed air 

A mote — yet conscious of thy care, 

While earth and shadows drift away 





»wiiriM i:? I 



lie tiiu ut the law for righteousness to ever>' one that believeth." — Rom. lo ; 4. 



